45 Years of Evolution in Conference Session Recording and Delivery

(Play)Back (Now) to the Future? 

My wife and I have white cabinets in our kitchen, which was the original color when we bought the house new in 1996. Our house is approaching 30 years old. In those near-30 years, white cabinets have fallen out of style, and come back into style, more often than we can remember.  I don’t know the current status of white cabinets in terms of trends, but I’m also not worried. If they’re not in style now, they will be again eventually. And we’ll look cool again.

Playback Now has been in the business of recording conference sessions for nearly 45 years. This simple concept has had many variations in terms of content delivery and accompanying services provided, and, like kitchen cabinet colors, these trends have fluctuated many times over the years.  But in the earliest days of Playback Now, the trend was a sales-driven, revenue-sharing model in which Playback Now recorded sessions, sold and delivered the content to attendees onsite, and shared the revenue with the client. A mutually beneficial relationship.

Playback Now’s Flex Capacity and Future-Proofing

Last week in Nashville, a city ironically experiencing its own trendy cycle, we went back (perhaps) to the future.  Working for the first time with APCO (The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) at their highly-regarded and well-attended annual conference, our team captured 120 educational sessions over the course of 4 days… each presentation edited and uploaded those MP4 videos to a custom-built commerce website designed specifically for APCO, and then sold complete access to those recordings to attendees from a booth onsite.  Like Marty McFly and Doc Brown in the DeLorean, it was as if we were “back in good ol’ 1985”.  And best of all, it didn’t require a flux capacitor to pull it off.  All it required is something we have always had an abundance of…flexibility.  Call it our Flex Capacity.

Unlike 1985, clients and associations today have an endless array of options in what to do with their educational content.  This was true before COVID, and it has only multiplied as we’ve come out of COVID.  In-person conferences, livestreaming, virtual events, hybrid events…streaming content, downloadable files, USB drives…limited access, free access, member benefit…audio, video, PowerPoint capture.  These buzzwords only scrape the surface of things that keep event directors and education managers up at night.  And all of those options require partnerships with multiple vendors.

Agile Virtual and Hybrid Event Solutions

Playback Now has stayed in business by understanding all these various needs, anticipating the trends, and being flexible enough to provide whatever the client decides on. Additionally, we’ve sustained business as happy event and content managers spread the word following successful projects.  Capture, polish, and elevate your education sessions with us. We handle recording, editing, website hosting, livestreaming, and virtual event execution. Sales, CE credits? Covered. Get in touch – Let’s make your content shine. Don’t just take our word for it, some of our reoccurring clients have put it in their own words.

Now all of this “Flex Capacity” might make it sound like Playback Now has an army of employees, which means we’re probably expensive.  On the contrary, Playback Now prides itself on being able to handle all of this work with a minimal amount of people in order to help keep costs down for event managers who are being nickel-and-dimed in every way possible by all their other vendors and event facilities. All that work by us at APCO in Nashville…120 sessions spread out over 4 days in 11 rooms on 2 floors…lightning-quick editing and uploading…an onsite sales booth staffed throughout the show…a custom website for sales and hosting files…all of that work was handled professionally by just 4 people from Playback Now…3 onsite, and 1 web developer back in the home office in Atlanta keeping an eye on things.  Over 225 complete packages were sold and counting!  All 120 recordings with audio synced to captured PowerPoints were viewable within 24 hours of being recorded live. It went off without a hitch, we worked closely with APCO’s AV vendor to assure the finest quality recordings.  And best of all, you can ask any client, our team’s responsiveness and attention to detail in leading up to an event is 2^nd to none.  Putting all fears to rest.

APCO 2023 featured packed rooms, busy hallways and engaging sessions covering current and future trends in the important field of public safety.

So while some people may get hung up on the color of the cabinets in a kitchen…others may put things like that in perspective for a house that’s been around forever.  After all, trends come and go. All that really matters is that the cupboards hidden behind the cabinet doors have been doing their job all along, holding everything in place, and will continue to do so for years to come.